GC: How do you deal with a guy who
doesn't seem to have his heart in it to quite the extent that you
do?

Theo: Well Chach should have told you
that I'm not gonna talk about the Manny situation because there's
still "no comment" for now but I can answer that question,
everyone's different, you have 25 guys on a baseball club, you have
some guys you can't get out of the lineup, some guys you can't get
into the lineup. Some guys are there first thing in the morning,
actually Manny is always the first one to the ballpark believe it or
not, and works usually as hard as anyone on the ballclub, does his
extra hitting and everything else but everyone's different. It's not
an ideal world, you're not going to have 25 guys who are all the
same, but that's our goal, you can only bring in so many guys each
year, but the goal is to have 25 guys who are all towing the same
line and want to win more than anything in the world, and that's all
they care about.

JD: How do you think this weekend's
episode with the Yankees and then yesterday refusing to enter the
game and even pinch hit sits with the rest of the guys in the
clubhouse?

Theo: I just know we have a lot of guys
who want to win. And that's what they care about and they want their
teammates to want to win too and I think they're going to work
through it to get on the same page.

GC: Was yesterday's win a rallying
point? Anyone can win a game for us, Lou Merloni, Mirabelli, Johnny
Damon, Trot Nixon... is that a game you can build on, does that game
carry over?

Theo: I think so, I don't think the
symbolism is lost on anyone and it was a great team win and that's
what we are is a team. The game was really a microcosm of the whole
season. We didn't make things easy on ourselves, we had problems in
the bullpen, we put ourselves behind the 8-ball, and then our
offense bailed us out again. I hope the ending of the game is just a
foreshadow of what's going to happen at the end of the season too.

GC: Did you know Manny was
unavailable when you were sitting up here in Boston watching it? Or
were you expecting say when Merloni hit to see Manny?

Theo: No I... Jim Rowe had approached
Manny in the middle of the game to see if he was good to go, but he
was still too sick, he wasn't ready to pinch hit, so I knew.

JD: You might be interested to learn
that in addition to the outrage of Manny not getting involved in the
Yankee series, the socializing with Enrique Wilson, and missing the
doctor's appointment and refusing to go into the game yesterday, the
second part of the conversation for most people seems to be how the
Red Sox front office and ownership handles this Manny situation from
a disciplinary standpoint will say a lot about this team going
forward and a referendum on dealing with players, do you think
that's overstating the case?

Theo: It is a bit because there are so
many extenuating circumstances, let's not forget that the most
important thing on everyone's mind right now, with one month to go
in the season, has to be winning. And we need to win.

JD: And if you have a player whose
number one priority is not that, is not shared with the other 24
guys, it seems to me...

Theo: You make it... you make his first
priority winning.

GC: How do you do that?

Theo: Uhh no comment..

GC: Is missing the doctor's appointment
the most egregious thing, the one thing sits the worst with you?

Theo: Well, Doctor Morgan saw Manny
yesterday, he went over to his house... GC: a Doctor who still
makes housecalls... Yep.

JD: Is there an ownership/management
meeting to discuss today Theo?

Theo: We talk about this stuff all the
time, it's not going to be hashed out in the public.

GC: What did you think during that
rally yesterday, the Merloni at bat, followed by Trot, were you
jumping out of your seat? How did you react?

Theo: Yeah, I came out of my seat, we
had great at bat after great at bat, Damian Jackson's at bat...
Mirabelli's at bat was great drawing a walk, Damian Jackson's...
that was an incredible piece of hitting from him going the other
way, Merloni really battled, and it was an amazing inning. I hope
it's a reflection of our team and our season.

GC: At what point will you find out
if Manny's ready tonight to face Bartolo Colon?

Theo: I think he will be, that's my gut
feel.

GC: Do you just wait for him to show
up at the park? Does Grady go see him? How do you assess his...

Theo: He'll be at the park early, he
really is the first one at the park, and I just have a gut feel
he'll be available tonight.

GC: So you don't think he'll be
suspended Theo, that won't happen?

Theo: I doubt it. They'll probably be
some disciplinary action, I doubt he'll be suspended.

GC: What other things are there, just
fines?

Theo: Yeah, there's things you can do
but again we're not... I don't think it's the right thing to do
discuss it in public. If there's an announcement, it will come out.

JD: We're not putting words in your
mouth but I think it's pretty clear when you talked about Johnny
Damon yesterday "we really appreciate the way Johnny Damon sucked it
up and got in the lineup, that's the kind of effort we need from
everybody on this club in September as we try to make the playoffs."

Theo: Absolutely. I stand by that.
That's exactly what we need if we're going to get where we're gonna
go and I think Johnny Damon sucking it up and getting in the lineup
provided a lot of motivation for the team yesterday in a game where
we showed a lot of intestinal fortitude as a team and it's a gray
area. People are hurt, people are sick this time of year. People
aren't faking things, they are sick. And they are hurt. But, it's
time to dig deep and get your way in the lineup. I have not been
listening and from what you say people are outraged. Sometimes there
is reason for outrage and sometimes there's gray areas too. Let's
just hope that soon all 25 guys find a way to suck it up, put the
team first, get in the lineup, and win this thing. That's what we're
trying to get to. We're not trying to come down on people, we're not
trying to turn people into something they're not, we just need the
team to come first right now, and we're all in this thing together
and we're trying to win.

GC: Why did Manny go to Philadelphia
if it was a one game series and he's not available, why not just go
ahead on to Chicago?

Theo: He came to Philly because he and
we weren't sure if he was going to be available or not. If he was
feeling better he would have been in there, he was too weak to play.

GC: Have you ever called in sick
Theo?

Theo: Uhh no. I mean I've gone home from
work but I've never called in sick.

9.4.03: Gammons: "Pedro and Manny aren't dancing in
the same conga line as the rest of the team... they had to sit Manny
down and say 'you're messing with our (playoff) money now.'"

It's
Getting Heart in Here

I was like, good gracious
Pete was bodacious
Outrageous, tryin' to show patience
Lookin' for the right time to sooth
Lookin' for the right time to flash them KsI'm
dreamin', keep believin'
Me and the rest of my heathens
Got it locked at the top of the Fall Seasons
Doghouse rooftop, crow I'm eatin'
No deceivin', nothin' I'm misleadin', no teasin'
I need you to get up on the Park floor
Give that man what he askin' for
'Cause he feel like bustin' loose
And he feel like pitchin' too
I can't, nobody stop the juice
So Petey tell me what's the use?

I said, it's gettin' heart in herre
Pedro don't need no close
He is gettin' so hot I wanna take my prose off
It's gettin' heart in herre
Pedro don't need no close
He is gettin' so hot I wanna take my prose off
With a little bit of uh uh
Mix a little bit of uh uh with a little bit of uh uh
Mix a little bit of uh uh with a little bit of uh uh

- Rap Artist Little Petey

The Trot Nixon
Show: Without Me

Didn't swing for the Monster, then nobody wants to bash
Manny no more
They want Doggie, I'm chopped liver (huh?)Well if you want
RBI, this is what I'll give ya
Little played small 'til I hit some hard homers
Some throws that would make my jump start quicker
than a shock when I get shocked that you want to drive
me to the airport when I'm not power hitting
When I forgot the out count you said 'release me' (hey!!)
You waited this long, now stop debating
Cause I'm back, I'm on the rip and runs create-ing
I know that I got a job (didn't trade me)
but my home run Trot problem's gone away lately
Now my OBP is high for me
just let me be me, that is the key
They tried to slide me up - five-spot you see
But it feels so empty, without me
So, come on Tek, Todd, Bill - get on my back
Heck, you can all come in on my hits
And get ready, cause August is about to get heavy
I just blasted one off the Rocket, "I'M
NO FATTY!"

On the Boston Media:"There
is a certain kind of fatalism, or expectation of problem that the
media here does have, the fans here have, in fact management here
has probably had over the years because of the history and the
record here. It's no secret that there's a more aggressive, more
extensive media core here than in most cities... (GC: How
negative was the Boston media after you took two games from the
Yankees?) It was enormously positive. (GC: So wouldn't it be
really intense, and really emotional, and passionate and not
necessarily negative? If negative things are happening then
naturally the media will reflect that sentiment. You don't get a
more positive media in San Diego or anywhere that you had in Boston
yesterday (after Mueller grand slams). I think that's right, but
remember Jones has been here for what a week? And what he's hearing
is stories from other guys, the conventional wisdom, the way it used
to be, I mean this goes back to Ted Williams and the adversarial
nature that has been allowed to exist between the players and the
organization and the media. We've tried to change that. I hope we
have made some inroads on that effort but I certainly don't blame
Jones for coming with that point of view. There is a difference in
baseball in the northeast. It is more intensely covered than it is
in other parts of the country. I think that's a good thing by and
large, I think controversy, and even some negative stuff, can be
provocative and keep fans interested and so we feel fortunate and
not victimized." LL with D&C on WEEI 7.31.03

Theoretically Speaking

Theo on AM 1510 The Zone with The
Diehards (Ryen Rusillo, Anthony Pepe, Mike Wynn) 8.1.03:
- You had to have noticed the barrage of media attention, last night
on Outside the Lines, all the New York papers, articles all over the
country if you go on sports pages, is it hard to keep yourself in
perspective a little bit with everything and all the attention you
have gotten?

TE: Not really, I think too much is being made of it. We haven't
done anything yet at all. We made a few deals, we put ourselves in a
position to have a good final third of the season and hopefully a
good postseason. But we haven't done anything yet and often times
the deals at the time they're made are met with a lot of praise and
enthusiasm are the ones that don't work out. And the ones that go
under the radar screen that might not be met with any attention at
the time turn out to be the best deals so we haven't done anything
yet, it's a bit of a gameplan and executed it pretty well but a lot
of teams in baseball did that. We just want to focus on having a
last two good months of the season and getting into October.

- Now some of the trades that were rumored to happen, one was that
you possibly had thrown some players back and forth to get Javier
Vazquez from Montreal back down here. Is it safe to say that the
Suppan deal was something you knew you could do and were waiting to
see if you could find out if you could do something else knowing
that that was always a possibility?
Continued

The Kid's Alright:
Birthday Boy

7.24.03
In a few words, the game this afternoon was painful. Very painful.
And Iíd rather not dwell on what I saw broadcast on NESN a few hours
ago. Last night, on the other hand, was a different story.

This Birthday Boy had a nice
night at Fenway Park. Well, actually, my special day is tomorrow,
but Friday night Yankee tickets with Pedro on the hill arenít
exactly easy to come by. So it was a Wednesday night affair with the
intimidating Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The real B-day boy, one Nomar
Garciaparra, put up an 0-fer, as he turned 30. Never fear though,
Trot Nixon came through, blasting home 5 RBIs on two home runs,
including a grand slam. And though Iíve seen my share of grannies on
TV, to be honest this might have been the first Iíve been witness to
in person.
Continued

NESN and W.B.
Mason Continue to Rub Nation's Nose in Ruth and Curses Crap Showing
World Series Banners that Might Have Been, if Only the Team Had
Saved Money on Office Supplies in 1919. Want to Save Money on Office
Supplies? Go to Staples.

Boycott W.B. Mason until "The
Truth About Ruth" ad
stops running during Red Sox games, causing our grandfathers
to turn over in their graves.

(We'll go after Smug Sam Adams
and the endless "Me four!" next)

Dumb and Dumberer

"There were
seven of us kids and we ran out of m's. I don't know much about guns.
Manager's decision. I'm not Charlton Heston but if a frog bailed hay he'd
manage in the little league right? Ichiro? Ichiro? He plays for the other
team! Fans don't matter, we'll play anywhere. I let my eyes evaluate what
I see. Manager's decision. In retrospect, you are always looking back and
I feel like a blind dog in a meat house because when Georgie Porgie
speaks, I don't listen... Manager's decision."

- Jimy

'"I think that we
have a clubhouse full of players who know that it was a hell of a game out
there tonight and it didn't turn in our favor in the end but we showed
everybody what we're made of. Those players in our clubhouse are only
proud of themselves. We definitely showed again that we're not going to
quit in a ballgame. And I'll tell you what, I'm awfully proud of that
fact... awfully proud of the way that game went today because we're
showing a lot of resilience. We'll get 'em tomorrow, if not, the day after
that. ''

"Not at all (was it
presumptuous to wear that glove before he actually got his 300th win). Major League Baseball
worked real hard on designing that (logo). Whatever
they want me to do, I'll try to do it.
It's great. I'm going to get there eventually. I hope. It couldnít have
worked out any better, except for
the loss.Ē

"We're tired of seeing the
same Pedro on the team, the same face as Pedro all the time. We need a
fresh face, a guy that plays guitar, is cute, a white Caucasian. We don't
want the Latin [expletive] to be in front of the TV all the time.' They
campaigned against me for the Cy Young. It's the same [expletive] they're
doing with Sammy."

The Inane Mutiny: Paranoid Pedro
is the Red Sox Captain Queeg

"They
were all racists. I tried to run my contract negotiations properly by
the book, but they fought me at every turn. If the bullpen wanted to
walk around with their shirttails hanging out, that's all right, let
them! Hold the (expletive) line - defective replacements, no more, no
less! But they encouraged the writers to go around, scoffing at me and
spreading wild rumors about talking in circles and then 'Old
Yellowstarter.' I was to blame for Grady Little's incompetence and poor
game management. Roger Clemens was the perfect pitcher, but not Captain
Pete. Ah, but the Sammy shows on ESPN!
That's, that's where I had them. They laughed at me and made jokes, but
I proved beyond the shadow of a doubt, and with, with geometric logic,
that, that a duplicate key to the Cy Young ballotbox did exist.
And I would have produced that key if I hadn't pulled my lat muscle and
remained out of action. I, I know now they were only trying to protect
some fellow guitar playing Whitey. (He pauses - looks at all the
questioning faces that stare back at him, and realizes that he has been
ranting and raving.) Naturally, I can only cover these things from
memory..." The clubhouse scene ends without a judge's verdict - it isn't
necessary.

It's Not Too Late to Support
The Dominican Republic Baseball Equipment Drive.
Boston area people of all color, white included, are collecting baseball
equipment to bring to the children of the Dominican Republic. (I guess
Sammy and Pedro don't make enough to cover the cost for the local kids.)

6.8.03 Gammons on Pedro --
The Baseball Show, WEEI: :

He (Pedro) lied (about
Gammons campaigning for Zito). It's ridiculous, just like he said that
racism cost him the 1999 MVP to Pudge Rodriguez. He's just obsessed with
getting his own way.

"All four
of the new-era GMs are young enough to have read James in college, or to
hang out with those who did. But Beane's breakthrough in Oakland is likely
most important. "And when you succeed with the kind of budgets that Beane
or the Padres had, teams are going to want that," says Sheehan. Already,
Oakland assistant GM Paul DePodesta and San Diego's Theo Epstein are
rumored to be the next in line." - 3.26.02

[sarcasm]Sox solve Nation's longstanding envelope and ticket
typeface problem... once 600 Club dishes are done from last night's game,
they'll move on to addressing that little
World Series drought issue.[/sarcasm]

Grady on Pedro: "We would be crazy to say we don't
have concerns for this kid. It could take the rest of the season before he's totally
back to normal... but I'm convinced that he will be totally back to normal." - June 13, 2002

"We've got some good ballplayers," he said. "But the
biggest thing is playing together. It goes back to respect. If I'm the top dog,
but you're the low dog and I'm pulling for you and I'm patting you on the back,
doing everything I can to get you up there with the top dog, then we're going to
be better off. The top dogs don't mean as much if the low dogs are down there
struggling. It's those type of things that make you a better ballclub."
6.10: Denver Post column

Thursday May 16, 2002

No Props from NY Post

"The Yankees are so far under the radar screen that the
Red
Sox actually think things are going their way even though they've lost their
slugger to a head first slide at home plate. Smart move, Manny. That's why you
are so perfect for Boston."

David Wells shows his disdain for the Boston Red Sox on WFAN's Mac & Sid Show this morning in his weekly interview with Sid Rosenberg:

Rosenberg: "...the Red Sox
probably are not going to battle you for that division but, after leaving Fenway,
after these last four games, would you say that you and the rest of the club is
impressed with this Red Sox team? That this is a team that may contend somewhere
down the stretch?"

Wells: "Not really, (laughing) hee-hee-hee (co-host Jody McDonald
also giggling like a school girl 'hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee') ...not
really... to be honest with you... I'm just sayin'... they've only got a couple of
guys in that rotation that people would go 'hey, we gotta' bear down'... it's
just the 'Yankee Mystique', this team finds a way of winning... the three games (in
Boston) we shoulda' won, no question we shoulda' won three of those games...

I don't see ourselves chasing
that team, there's
other teams that we may be chasing, but not that one."

Audio Clip available at

www.wfan.com.
Click on Mac & Sid link, then click on April 16th - David Wells joins
Mac & Sid for his weekly spot. (Boston bashing starts about 05:15 into the
interview).

The ďCurtís Pitch
for ALSĒ program is a joint effort by Curt and Shonda Schilling, and The
ALS Association Mass Chapter to strike out Amyotrophic Lateral
Sclerosis, more commonly known as Lou Gehrigís Disease.

Curt and Shonda
will be contributing $25,000 to The ALS Association Massachusetts
Chapter, and they are asking fans to contribute as well. All proceeds
will benefit research and patient services for those in Massachusetts
affected by the disease. Program participants will receive different
incentive prizes based on the dollar amount per strikeout that they
pledge.
Please
click here to learn more about the program.